Well Air rifle hunter and I went hunting in the forest this morning and ended up with 25 squirrels. The weather was cold and cloudy in the AM but cleared up quick and got a little warm but a cool light breeze kept things nice. Well my first kill of the day was also the longest I have ever done with an Airgun at a laserd 111 yards I was super happy that my .22 Theoben Rapid did so well out that far. I got 2 more on a rock at 44 yards and on my way back I sliped off a rock and smacked the tip of my barrel on the rock scratching it and nocking off the alignmet. The gun was shooting about 1/2-1" to the left at 25 yards so I had to try to re-align it in the field. I managed to get things working good enough to get 11 more squirrels, 2 as close as 15 yards all the way out to 92 yards but most were around the 50-82 yard mark.Air rifle hunter got 11 squirrels with his M-Rod which is great since it's his first .22 PCP airgun. He said he got his longest shot ever today at 82 yards which is great for a stock M-Rod. He got a few as close as 21 yards but most for him too were around the 50-82 yard mark. He took a few pics and might post later on we wern't able to get pics of every kill they were spread out over a large area.

Well, early Saturday Morning (10/15/2011) I arrived at CBR400RR's place and we loaded up our gear and headed out to a local spot to do some Ground Squirrel population control. We arrived at around 7am and were set up on a nice, shady area with plenty of boulders and oak trees to conceal us from our quarry. It was quiet until we hear an alarm chirp and CBR400RR headed over to check it out. I hear a "Pffft" and than a loud "THWAP!". An awesome 111 yard kill shot from his Rapid .22 air rifle. A good start to our day. Unfortunately later, due to a misstep on a slanted rock, his barrel was tapped up against a boulder and nocked slightly out of alignment. A few taps back and it was close to re-alignment, but made it more challenging to take out our quarry at the distances we were shooting. I had my Benjamin Marauder .22 and finally got my first shot of the day on a squirrel at around 22 Yards. Smack! Clean head shot and the squirrel was down for the count. My first (4) shots of the morning were all head shots (22,26,44 & 48 yards). I had then spotted a squirrel out at 194 Yards and decided to try for it just for fun since even at 194 yards my pellets still carried almost 7 FPE of power on the target. I lowered the magnification on my scope to 4x and checked ChairGun Pro to see what the position on the reticule would be. I then fired off a total of (4) shots with apparently only one or two getting close (saw the squirrel duck on one shot and then jump and run on the final shot). After wasting those four shots I decided not to try again from that distance since I only get a total of about 30 good shots out of my Marauder and at that point I had now fired of a total of 8 shots. We continued for a while, shooting one here and there and then moved to a second location, where CBR400RR targeted and took out another one with a vital shot at around 46 yards (shown in photo below). We then moved to our third and final spot where I actually got my farthest kill shots that day at 82 yards. I took down (3) squirrels total at that distance ((2) with head shots and (1) with a vital shot). That made my day to pull that off with my Marauder .22 and put a big smile on my face . All in all, CBR400RR took down 14 and I took down 11 for a combined total of 25. Not too bad for a morning's take with air rifles. I made sure to take a few photos of some of the squirrels I was able to recover since I know you all like "Photo Proof" of the trip and the take downs. Besides, it helps add to the story... These three were taken at 22, 26 and 44 Yards (All Head Shots)SQHunt_8_ThreeDown.jpg63.45KB6 downloadsThis one was shot at around 46 Yards (with a vital shot).SQHunt_8_OneDown.jpg53.26KB5 downloadsThese two were picked off at 82 Yards (Head Shots).SQHunt_8_TwoDown.jpg51.5KB5 downloadsThis one was shot at around 74 Yards (Head/Neck Shot).SQHunt_8_AnotherDown.jpg55.76KB5 downloads It was a good time, but I'm sure we didn't even put a dent in the population. Thanks for the nice morning of hunting Ground Squirrels CBR400RR!

ARH no problem, it was a lot of fun until I fell...lol but it still worked out and I got the barrel back to zero and I sanded and repainted the shroud so I'm back to 100% except a sore chest where the gun or rock hit me. Anytime you want to come over and target shoot or go hunting just let me know.

Nothing like a great story and pics to go with it. Have a friend with a PCP 22 cal rifle who has the patience of a real sniper. He'll wait for a good shot listening to classical music.

It is fun to sit quietly with an air rifle, knowing your target will come out sooner or later and then once your target gets in that desired position, THWAP! Lights out! Sitting out there waiting really gives you time to just sit and enjoy being outdoors... I love it.

Hopefully soon. I have to get some urgent work done within the next few weeks for a project I'm working on, so it will probably be in a couple of weeks or so , sooner if I can get my work done . I'll let you know when my work load starts to lighten up. Maybe one of these evenings we could head back out an hour or so for some rabbits? I might be able to do that. Just let me know when you are thinking of going and I'll let you know if I can make that day and time work. Thanks.

Awesome hunting day. 25 GS and one at over a 100 yards, damn. Mighty fine shooting. I need to get out and stretch out my airguns. All of my hunting has been done at 20 - 35 yards (pesting at home and at my Dads place). I haven't seen a HOSP in weeks now and the ground squirrels have all but disappeared as well. If you ever need another hunter, just give me a call. Have AG's will travel.

Southern California... way near the bottom. Basically near the mid-east side of San Diego Country area.

But ground squirrels can be found almost anywhere there are trees or bushes with edibles on them (i.e. acorns and any nuts, fruits, ) or agricultural fields. If you can find BLM or hunt-able forestry land with pine trees, oak trees, oak shrubs, etc., you will find ground squirrels to blast.